1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to random number generators. More particularly, it relates to a random number generator that can generate a single random number or multiple random numbers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many people derive pleasure from playing state-sponsored lottery games, and other games involving the selection of random numbers. Choosing the numbers to play in the games is part of the fun, but players eventually grow tired of playing the same numbers based on birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and the like. Some players like to choose random numbers by throwing darts at dart boards having numbers thereon, and so on.
Examples of non-dart board devices for generating random numbers are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,796,890, 5,114,146, 5,039,101, and 4,874,178.
Of all the foregoing patents, the '178 patent is of most interest because it shows a bottle filled with a plurality of numbered balls and a neck into which six balls may randomly enter when the bottle is shook and inverted. Thus, where a player desires to select six random numbers, the bottle is shaken to stir the balls and inverted; the numbers on the balls that fall into the neck are then selected as the numbers to be played. However, many states play games where only three numbers are selected, where five numbers are selected, and so on. Thus, a player using the '178 device will have to ignore some of the balls in the neck at the time the numbers are selected, and no method is provided to direct the player as to which numbers should be ignored. Thus, the player does not feel that the numbers were truly randomly generated because he or she must make the final selection.
The '178 patent document recites that for games involving differing numbers of random numbers, the neck of the bottle would need to be longer or shorter. Thus, if a player wanted to select three numbers for a game, a bottle having a neck with a length equivalent to the collective diameter of three balls would have to be purchased, and so on. Thus, a player would need to own a plurality of the '178 devices, and all of said devices would have to be filled with numbered balls.
Thus, there is a need for a device that could provide differing quantities of random numbers so that multiple devices would not need to be purchased, but the prior art, when considered as a whole, neither teaches nor suggests to those of ordinary skill in this art how the needed device could be provided.